Back in 2007 I decided to head to the Andes to climb a couple of volcanoes. At the time I kept myself fit only through cycling to work and the occasional game of football, but I decided that to improve my chances of success in the mountains I should make more effort to get fit, so I started to run.
Initially I was just going out for an occasional mile, but I found I was enjoying it so decided to up the stakes and give myself a new challenge....I entered my local half-marathon race. Cue three months of fairly intense training as I built up from struggling to run around the block to completing my first 10k race and finally completing my first half-marathon in a respectable 1:41:52.
I had achieved my goal, but then the running bug set in, not content with what I'd achieved, I wanted to know the limits of what I could achieve so I continued to train and entered a succession of half marathons to see how quick I could go. To date I have run eleven half marathons and have lowered my PB to 1:27:41, but I think there is still room for improvement.
After my success in getting through my first half marathon the logical next challenge was to step up to the marathon so I entered the ballot for a place in the London Marathon 2009 and I was lucky enough to win a place. Training seemed to be going well six weeks before the race when I ran a half marathon PB but just two days later, heartbreak, I broke down with an injury that would rule me out of the marathon. Thankfully London allows you to carry over your place in the event of injury so I had a guaranteed entry for 2010.
I had a full year to get myself fit and ready to complete my first marathon, and then were alot of highs on the way, including four successive half-marathon PBs, but also some lows. Again about six weeks shy of the big day I suffered with injury, this time I missed three weeks of training, thankfully I recovered enough to be able to run in London but I went into the race scared of a recurrence of my injury and also without the miles in my legs to get all the way round running. I finished the race relieved to have got round but disappointed that I failed to do myself justice.
This brings us to the present, just this last week I have entered the Madrid Marathon 2011, so this blog will follow my journey to redemption following my London disappointment. I will detail all the highs and lows of training for my second marathon and I hope this will make interesting reading for anyone else out there with a zest for running and pushing themselves to the limit.
Happy reading and running!
El Maratonero
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